A verbal squabble has broken out between the Congress and the BJP after President Droupadi Murmu appointed new governors for 12 states including the likes of Maharashtra, Bihar, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, and Jharkhand among others, and Union Territory Ladakh.
The opposition has slammed the Centre's move to appoint former Supreme Court judge S Abdul Nazeer as the eighth Governor of Andhra Pradesh. He succeeds senior BJP leader Biswabhushan Harichandran, who has been transferred and appointed the new Governor of Chhattisgarh.
Nazeer has been part of several controversial and landmark judgments over the past few years, including the Triple Talaq case, the Ayodhya Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid dispute, and the demonetization case. Nazeer, who retired on January 4 this year, was also given “Z plus” security in November 2019 following the delivery of the Ayodhya verdict. He quoted Kofi Annan during his farewell saying that there is no tool for development more effective than the empowerment of women as per an India Today report. "If I say the Indian judiciary is immune to gender inequalities, I can't be farther away from reality. Representation of women in the judiciary is still very low," he had said.
On Nazeer's appointment, Congress MP Manickam Tagore shared the news tweeting, " Modi work for Adani...There are who work for Modi who are now Governors." He further asked, "Who works for people then?"
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh also indirectly took a dig at the former SC judge's appointment. Ramesh shared a tweet with an old video from 2012 of the late Arun Jaitley, also a former Union Finance Minister and BJP leader where Jaitley had said, "Pre-retirement judgments are influenced by post-retirement jobs." Quoting Jaitley's video, Jairam Ramesh said, "Adequate proof of this in the past 3-4 years for sure."
Coming to the government's defense, BJP leader BL Santhosh lambasted the opposition's response critiquing, "As has become a practice nowadays Congi - Left eco system opposes appointment of Justice ( Rtd ) Abdul Nazeer ‘s appointment as Governor of Andhra Pradesh." He also called the grand old Congress party a "Do as I say not as I do' brigade".
(With PTI inputs)
